This has been bugging me for a while. If I'm burning a CD, will I heard an audible difference between some shitty codec or a good sound card. One more thing ...Will there be a difference in sound quality if I go all out and buy a High end Audio solution like M-Audio, Event , or Presonus??
CD-Burning is not routed through the sound card. It's a digital process all the way. So, to answer your first question, no your sound card will not affect the sound quality of music CDs you make.
To your second question, yes there can be differences in playback quality depending on your soundcard. For example, an 8 bit soundcard is going to sound very "electronic" with possible aliases of the sound 2 or 4 octaves above the actual signal. Any 16 bit (or better) sound card should be able to give you "CD Quality" playback... so, with one exception, for 99% of the cards out there you are selecting features, not sound quality.
The exception to this is Midi Playback. If you play midi files or if your games use midi files for sound, you will want a card with a good quality midi synthesizer in <i>hardware</i>. I personally like the midi sound from Creative cards best, Yamaha's GX based cards are good too. The instruments sound very natural and lifelike in either case. Some cheapy cards use the "Microsoft GS Wavetable" for midi rendering... and it <b>SUCKS</b>, the distortion guitar sounds like a duck call and the bass just isn't clear at all.
All that said... the biggest single "bang for the buck" improvement you can make in your computer's sound will be speakers. There's no such thing as a speaker setup that's too good. If you have a high quality stereo or home theater setup, you might consider connecting your soundcard to it. Otherwise, preview speaker setups in-store and buy the best you can afford.
I've done something a bit unusual with my setup. I have a pair of mediocre computer speakers beside my monitor for games and the beeps and boops from programs, but I also have a splitter running over to my stereo for music playback. Works like a dream.
Hope this helps...
<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b>)</b>
To your second question, yes there can be differences in playback quality depending on your soundcard. For example, an 8 bit soundcard is going to sound very "electronic" with possible aliases of the sound 2 or 4 octaves above the actual signal. Any 16 bit (or better) sound card should be able to give you "CD Quality" playback... so, with one exception, for 99% of the cards out there you are selecting features, not sound quality.
The exception to this is Midi Playback. If you play midi files or if your games use midi files for sound, you will want a card with a good quality midi synthesizer in <i>hardware</i>. I personally like the midi sound from Creative cards best, Yamaha's GX based cards are good too. The instruments sound very natural and lifelike in either case. Some cheapy cards use the "Microsoft GS Wavetable" for midi rendering... and it <b>SUCKS</b>, the distortion guitar sounds like a duck call and the bass just isn't clear at all.
All that said... the biggest single "bang for the buck" improvement you can make in your computer's sound will be speakers. There's no such thing as a speaker setup that's too good. If you have a high quality stereo or home theater setup, you might consider connecting your soundcard to it. Otherwise, preview speaker setups in-store and buy the best you can afford.
I've done something a bit unusual with my setup. I have a pair of mediocre computer speakers beside my monitor for games and the beeps and boops from programs, but I also have a splitter running over to my stereo for music playback. Works like a dream.
Hope this helps...
<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b>)</b>
Okay, there is a difference in codec quality, though I think you are confused about what you are asking.
Codec are enCOder/DECoders that change a data stream into a sensory media (audio/video). there are different audio codecs (mp3, wma, wav, etc) and they can be encoded using different coders (mp3 has Lame, Fraunhofer, Xing, and Blade). So, if you are burning MP3s to a CD, to get the best quality (and yes, you can hear the difference) go for Lame encoding and decoding. It's the cheapest (free) and best sounding (really, it is) codec out there. In this case, however, it doesn't matter what sound card you have as you can burn CDs without even having a sound card.
Second, yes you can hear the difference between card manufacturers. They use different methods of converting that data stream into an audio clip. Some go cheap and get something that sounds "decent", while others spend time and money on R&D to get quality sound output. This is what M-Audio, RME, Audiotrak, and the like do, but Creative doesn't. Creative gives you those value-added features, while the others give you straight-out quality. M-Audio, Guillemot, and Audiotrak are my mainstream picks, while RME is my high-end pick. Creative can just pick my a$$.
XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3 Ti500 w/64MB DDR
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
My computer is bigger than your computer....
Codec are enCOder/DECoders that change a data stream into a sensory media (audio/video). there are different audio codecs (mp3, wma, wav, etc) and they can be encoded using different coders (mp3 has Lame, Fraunhofer, Xing, and Blade). So, if you are burning MP3s to a CD, to get the best quality (and yes, you can hear the difference) go for Lame encoding and decoding. It's the cheapest (free) and best sounding (really, it is) codec out there. In this case, however, it doesn't matter what sound card you have as you can burn CDs without even having a sound card.
Second, yes you can hear the difference between card manufacturers. They use different methods of converting that data stream into an audio clip. Some go cheap and get something that sounds "decent", while others spend time and money on R&D to get quality sound output. This is what M-Audio, RME, Audiotrak, and the like do, but Creative doesn't. Creative gives you those value-added features, while the others give you straight-out quality. M-Audio, Guillemot, and Audiotrak are my mainstream picks, while RME is my high-end pick. Creative can just pick my a$$.
XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
MSI GF3 Ti500 w/64MB DDR
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
My computer is bigger than your computer....
mattburklund
Distinguished
- Mar 19, 2002
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Whats the highest bit rate you can burn to a cd? If you burn your audio to a dvd would it sound better, because they can support higher bit rates?
It would depend on the software CODEC you use on your system.
the "Lame" codec, included with most third party CDrippers can encode MP3s with "better than CD" quality sound. Of course when you burn it, it ends up being CD quality no matter what you do, otherwise you wouldn't be able to play the disks on a standard player.
For the DVD question, I have to admit I'm not absolutely certain... but DVD sound is definately very high quality.
--->It ain't better if it don't work<---
the "Lame" codec, included with most third party CDrippers can encode MP3s with "better than CD" quality sound. Of course when you burn it, it ends up being CD quality no matter what you do, otherwise you wouldn't be able to play the disks on a standard player.
For the DVD question, I have to admit I'm not absolutely certain... but DVD sound is definately very high quality.
--->It ain't better if it don't work<---
1. 16 bit 44,1kHz is the highest quality you can put on a ordninary CD that you can play in most CD players(there is something called CD24 but not many players for it). Bit rate is not used to describe CD audio.
2. Putting something on DVD won't make it sound better, it will make it sound as good as it is. It depends on the source.
If you've recorded the audio yourself you can burn it as 24bit 96kHz (if it was recorded in that mode) on a DVD to get DVD audio. The sound on ordinary DVD movies are the same as CD, 16bit 44,1kHz. Also note that 44,1 kHz doesn't mean how high frequences that can be reproduced but it is how many samples that are saved for every second, like a camera to get moving pictures. 24bit stands for how much information that can be stored in each sample, like resolution (it is audio resolution in fact) of a picture on a computer screen.
You can't polish a turd into a diamond.
Hope this clear things up a bit. I'll state that the soundcard doesn't affect coding mp3's or burning audio, it will only come in use when you play your audio.
2. Putting something on DVD won't make it sound better, it will make it sound as good as it is. It depends on the source.
If you've recorded the audio yourself you can burn it as 24bit 96kHz (if it was recorded in that mode) on a DVD to get DVD audio. The sound on ordinary DVD movies are the same as CD, 16bit 44,1kHz. Also note that 44,1 kHz doesn't mean how high frequences that can be reproduced but it is how many samples that are saved for every second, like a camera to get moving pictures. 24bit stands for how much information that can be stored in each sample, like resolution (it is audio resolution in fact) of a picture on a computer screen.
You can't polish a turd into a diamond.
Hope this clear things up a bit. I'll state that the soundcard doesn't affect coding mp3's or burning audio, it will only come in use when you play your audio.
1. 16 bit 44,1kHz is the highest quality you can put on a ordninary CD that you can play in most CD players(there is something called CD24 but not many players for it). Bit rate is not used to describe CD audio.
2. Putting something on DVD won't make it sound better, it will make it sound as good as it is. It depends on the source.
If you've recorded the audio yourself you can burn it as 24bit 96kHz (if it was recorded in that mode) on a DVD to get DVD audio. The sound on ordinary DVD movies are the same as CD, 16bit 44,1kHz. Also note that 44,1 kHz doesn't mean how high frequences that can be reproduced but it is how many samples that are saved for every second, like a camera to get moving pictures. 24bit stands for how much information that can be stored in each sample, like resolution (it is audio resolution in fact) of a picture on a computer screen.
You can't polish a turd into a diamond.
Hope this clear things up a bit. I'll also state that the soundcard doesn't affect coding mp3's or burning audio, it will only come in use when you play your audio.
2. Putting something on DVD won't make it sound better, it will make it sound as good as it is. It depends on the source.
If you've recorded the audio yourself you can burn it as 24bit 96kHz (if it was recorded in that mode) on a DVD to get DVD audio. The sound on ordinary DVD movies are the same as CD, 16bit 44,1kHz. Also note that 44,1 kHz doesn't mean how high frequences that can be reproduced but it is how many samples that are saved for every second, like a camera to get moving pictures. 24bit stands for how much information that can be stored in each sample, like resolution (it is audio resolution in fact) of a picture on a computer screen.
You can't polish a turd into a diamond.
Hope this clear things up a bit. I'll also state that the soundcard doesn't affect coding mp3's or burning audio, it will only come in use when you play your audio.
You can't get "better than CD" quality when encoding MP3s. The resulting track can only be as good as the original, no better. When you burn to a CD, it only goes to 16/44.1, and no other.
For the DVD question, you wouldn't be able to play it in a CD player, so what good would it do you?
XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
ATI 9700 Pro
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
For the DVD question, you wouldn't be able to play it in a CD player, so what good would it do you?
XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
ATI 9700 Pro
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio
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